The Problem Link to heading

Minecraft does not work with older versions of Java, which is what is available on the debian repos by default.

The Solution Link to heading

Installing Java Link to heading

Go HERE and copy the link to the latest Java version Debian package. And download the package to the server

For example, this one was the latest at the time of writing.

wget https://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/16.0.1+9/7147401fd7354114ac51ef3e1328291f/jdk-16.0.1_linux-x64_bin.deb

Install it

sudo dpkg -i jdk-16.0.1_linux-x64_bin.deb

Now we need to link this installation to be used as the default one

Note: I am assuming that there are no other apps that depends on other versions of Java. This makes Java 16 the default one. If this is a fresh server, go ahead and do this blindly

Obviously, make sure to change the path jdk-16.0.1 to whatever you are installing

update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java  /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-16.0.1/bin/java 2
update-alternatives --config java
update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/jar jar /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-16.0.1/bin/jar 2
update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-16.0.1/bin/javac 2
update-alternatives --set jar /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-16.0.1/bin/jar
update-alternatives --set javac /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-16.0.1/bin/javac

Run java -version to verify that it has installed correctly

Installing MineCraft Link to heading

Go HERE and get the latest download link.

In my case:

wget https://launcher.mojang.com/v1/objects/0a269b5f2c5b93b1712d0f5dc43b6182b9ab254e/server.jar

Once downloaded, run it using

java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar server.jar nogui

Now, this should complain that you need to accept the EULA. There should be a file eula.txt in the same directory. Edit it using a text editor vim eula.txt

eula=true

Save the file and close the editor

Running Minecraft Link to heading

You can directly start it, but it is better to start it in a screen/tmux session. This way, it will keep running even if you get disconnected from the server

Install Tmux

sudo apt install tmux

Start a new Tmux session

tmux new -s minecraft

Start the Minecraft server

java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar server.jar nogui

That’s it. You can detach from the terminal by using Ctrl + B, release, then D